Heartstrung is an immersion in the emotional body, as imagined by collaborative installation artists Talita Cabral and Katelyn Halpern.
Sparked by early conversations about the female body, blood, and interiority, Heartstrung holds viewers in a sacred, brutal space pulsing with thought, feeling, and vitality. Mammalian body processes of absorption, retention, and release suffuse the environment, enriching and complicating the question how does the body hold the emotional heart?
Heartstrung artist and SMUSH Gallery artistic director Katelyn Halpern talks about the installation during JCAST 2018. [Uploaded by Jersey City TV on 2018-10-23
Participatory elements serve as a reminder that, although our bodies are singular and self contained, we exist in relationship to others. Before stepping in, guests are asked to remove their shoes as a means of both sensitizing themselves and of softening their tread.
synaptic transmissions
Within the exhibition, guests are invited to help anchor the heart form by tying strips of fabric from the chamber walls to the heart sculpture. By accepting the premise of literal heartstrings, the artists signal their rejection of the pervasive, violent story separating the body, mind, and heart, and instead move to rejoin them in full public view.
The artists wish to thank Elliot Cole for providing the sound score, Myssi Robinson for her assistantship, and the many friends and volunteers who supported the piece’s development.